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Health & Fitness

"Eat, Drink and Be Merry"

I dropped by Mountain Charley’s the other night to check the entertainment and was pleasantly surprised to find a young boy/girl duo playing acoustic guitars and singing their hearts out. They were dressed in tight Levis and cowboy boots. A big smile got smacked across my face. Boy-oh-boy, this was a page right out of my book, for sure. They were both pretty good singers but the girl was obviously the “front man,” the one whose talent they were showing off. The guy was the backup. I listened to a few songs and while they were competent, they weren’t good enough to justify me not getting a good night’s sleep. I was really pooped. As I was leaving, I waited for the end of their song and I went up to the girl and asked her if she had ever heard of Juice Newton. The young, slim lady smiled and told me yes she had, and then she looked up, thinking, and said “she did Queen of Hearts?”  I smiled back at her and told that was right. I added that Juice got her start here in Los Gatos and used to play on this same stage every Saturday night for months on end. The girl looked round and I left the saloon.
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A couple of years ago, I collected a batch of my posts together and published them as a book, Small Mountain Rambles. One of the chapters in the book is about a weekend when chart busting, country singer, Juice Newton, put on the biggest show ever presented in Mountain Charley’s Saloon. Juice Newton started making a name for herself singing in a duo with her long time partner, Otha Young, who was once a football hero at Los Gatos High School. Juice and Otha, and later a bass player Tom Keely (? the spelling) was added, played all over town for years. Juice had one outstanding, singular voice and everyone knew it. Soon enough, she made the big time. They moved to LA and her career took off. On the eve of a very big, national stadium tour, Otha called me, then the general manager of Mountain Charely’s Restaurant and Saloon, and told me that Juice was terrified of playing in front of stadium sized crowds and he wondered if they could “break” the show in our saloon, in a familiar setting. The chapter in my book in about how things progressed after Otha asked us for this favor You can read it on-line, by clicking here.

I make no secret of the fact that I’m not much of a sports fan.  I won’t go out of my way to watch a football game, but as well, if one is right in front of me, I can enjoy the effort that the boys are putting into it.  Last year, I watched every single one of the Monday Night Football games because my good friends, Gail and Jimmy DiBenedetto, the owners of Number One Broadway, gave me a little added incentive, they offer a great spread of comfort food every week, for free.  This isn’t Monday Night Football that is advertised on TV, all crazy and over the top.  Nope, I’m ever so not into such nonsense, . . .

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